


Being True

by aliencupcake



Category: Faking It (TV 2014)
Genre: 5+1 Things, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, Friends to Lovers, Misses Clause Challenge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-24
Updated: 2015-12-24
Packaged: 2018-05-07 20:12:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,859
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5469494
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aliencupcake/pseuds/aliencupcake
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In this version of reality, Amy and Karma never pretended to be lesbians. Things turned out a whole lot different.</p><p>Five times Amy said "yes" to Karma in the alternate reality and one time she told her "no."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Being True

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Sandel](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sandel/gifts).



> I hope you enjoy the fic! I had a lot of fun with it!
> 
> And thank you to my awesome Top Secret Beta Elves for their assistance. :D

I.

High school was a biohazard. It was a petri dish full of who-knew-what sort of microscopic creatures. Amy hadn’t paid that much attention in bio, but she still felt like everyone was the emotional equivalent of bacteria. Some of the students weren’t even as evolved as the average single-celled organism.

Given the chance, many high schoolers would likely embarrass any self-respecting bacterium – and sometimes, her own friends fell into that particular category. 

“Karma, do you really want to pretend to be blind tomorrow? That's a sketchier idea than putting an oil executive at the head of the Senate environmental committee.”

“Mom told me the chairman of that committee called global warming a hoax, which is basically the same thing as being an oil executive. This will totally work.”

“Yeah, it’ll be as effective as Congress. You know how popular _they_ are around here,” Amy said, despite knowing that she was going to go along with the scheme anyway.

“We’re much cuter than anyone in Congress.”

Amy tried to imagine Karma in a pantsuit and with power hair. It wasn't as stupid an image as it could have been.

“Hello? Did you hear me?”

The distracting image in Amy’s brain was talking to her, sounding more like a fellow teenager than anybody who would wear a pantsuit. Maybe Lauren would wear one – except hers, if it wasn’t a skirt suit, would be the kind of pastel pink you might find on a villainous kindergarten teacher. Amy remembered getting put in the corner when she’d told Mrs. What’s-Her-Face she would rather marry the frog than the prince, and Lauren could easily be Mrs. What’s-Her-Face’s secret love child.

“I totally heard you. Loud and clear.”

Karma turned full to face her, her auburn hair bouncing as she did. “No, you didn’t. This is important. Do you want to be stuck in obscurity forever? Will you help me now? We have to be convincing.”

It would be more convincing if it weren’t completely fucking fake. Rolling her eyes, Amy nonetheless nodded, reluctantly agreeing to go along with the plan. She grabbed her phone and started searching for stories of blind people; if they were going to do this, they should at least try for realism. She’d initially thought of just smiling and letting Karma go on with her scheme, but maybe asking the internet would help.

The first relevant link turned up a story about some man who got _arrested_ for faking blindness. It all had something to do with insurance fraud, but the story didn’t exactly fill Amy with optimism, and she held up the phone so Karma could see.

“Some guy got arrested for faking blindness. Do you _want_ to have a criminal record?” Of course, for all she knew, that might be part of Karma’s plan.

“You can be arrested for faking blindness?”

“Yeah. Is it worth the risk?”

Karma frowned in thought. “You know Cassie Brenner? She already got arrested, like, last week. I don’t want to be a copycat. It’s too soon. I need a better plan.”

With any luck, Karma’s next scheme wouldn’t land them in copycat jail, or worse.

***

II.

“You could pretend to be an alien? Or a robot? Artificial intelligence is pretty hot right now. You’d be topical.” A day before Shane Harvey’s party, Amy was sitting in her room, throwing out suggestions so Karma didn’t have a total popularity meltdown. Amy, however, doubted that her idea about AI would work.

She blamed the lack of viable suggestions on the heat in the room. Maybe she should check the air conditioner.

“Do robots get invited to parties?” Karma seemingly had no problems with an overheated room as they sat together, given that she still had enough energy to bounce slightly on the bed. Karma just bounced a lot, Amy had started to notice.

“It probably depends. If the robot has a breathalyzer function, there’s no way Shane Harvey would invite them anywhere. It would be a liability.”

“So I’ll be a robot without a breathalyzer.”

“You’re not actually going to pretend to be a robot, are you?”

“Do you really want to be a nobody for the rest of your life? We still don’t have invites to Shane’s party, even without being breathalyzer robots. Why _not_ be a robot? I’d be the first artificial life-form to attend Hester High.” Karma stood up, almost glowing at the possibility of glory that being the first AI student at their high school would bring. She glowed enough Amy briefly wondered if she truly _were_ a robot. Humans didn’t have hair that shiny.

“How would you convince someone you’re a robot, anyway? And if you did get someone to believe you, are you sure they wouldn’t just think you’re an agent of the man?”

“I’d be a robot, not a _drone_. It’s drones everyone hates, right? I’d be a robot of the people. You’re the one who said AI was hot, and I’d get so many diversity points for being the first AI to attend.”

“The first except for – ugh – Lauren Cooper.”

“Your stepsister-to-be doesn’t count. Maybe I need shinier clothes to pull this off? Or some of your mom’s hairspray?” Karma said, tugging at the ends of her hair.

“I don’t know. Lauren _could_ be a real AI. Or a drone.” In truth, Amy thought Lauren would make a terrible spy drone. She didn’t fit at Hester High so well – not that Amy herself was one to talk.

“Then I have to beat her by coming out before she can. So, will you help me pretend to be a robot?”

Despite thinking there was no way this could work, Amy nodded. She simply never said no to Karma. “Of course I’m going to help. Would it count as a documentary if I filmed you being the first robot student at Hester High?”

“It’d be based on a true story?” Karma shrugged.

Before she could answer, Lauren slammed the door open. “Just because I’m stuck in this loser hippie town with all you one hundred percent organic freaks doesn’t mean I’m a fucking drone,” she snapped, glaring at Karma and Amy despite being the one who had violated their privacy.

Amy was slightly intimidated, though she didn’t show it. “So you are a real girl?”

“Fuck off, that’s none of your business. Of course I’m a real girl. My diet isn’t all tofu and positive thinking, but that doesn’t make me a drone.”

“That’s good, because a drone has as much chance of of getting elected as a pig or a ficus plant.” Amy laughed. Even their school wouldn’t elect a pig or a plant for homecoming, prom or anything else. Probably.

She hoped Hester High would be more open to giving fake robots popularity than they would be to giving it to pigs or plants, though.

***

III.

Fake robots did not, in fact, become popular at Hester High. Though Amy appreciated the look, Karma’s skintight sparkly silver miniskirt had so far failed to convince the student body she was a robot. Even the slicked-back hair hadn’t helped, nor had the black go-go boots or – also-skintight – black vegan leather tank top.

Amy thought Karma was lucky she had such permissive parents, who hadn’t cared as long as Karma’s tank top was vegan, though perhaps Amy’s own mom would have just been happy Amy was wearing a skirt if she’d tried to dress up as a fake robot.

“Why isn’t this working?” Karma pouted. “Nobody seems to care that I’m a robot. That’s discrimination, isn’t it? They should care.”

“Maybe they think it’s a performance art piece?” Amy scanned the other students on the ground. More than a few looked their way, but nobody was coming up to tell Karma how proud they were of her for coming out as an artificial life-form.

“Everyone does performance art here. That’s not going to make me popular.”

“Unfortunately not.” Even more unfortunately, Amy had no idea how to make things better. It was like one of those terrible brainteasers, only with people, who were even more confusing than mass-produced joke puzzles.

“Seriously, nobody’s buying this. I’m going to change into normal clothes. I think I’m shedding sparkles from this stupid skirt, too. Remind me not to wear anything with glitter when we go to homecoming?”

While Amy liked the fake robot outfit, she didn’t say so. There would have been no point. She didn’t even know why she liked it so much; Amy was hardly a fan of sparkles or miniskirts, and the outfit wasn’t doing its job. Liking it made about as much sense as wearing skintight leather in the Texas heat.

“Of course. Nothing with glitter. Got it.”

“You are going to come to homecoming, too, aren’t you?”

Homecoming wasn’t Amy’s idea of a good time. It was like regular high school, just in more uncomfortable clothes. She had little reason to attend a dance whose major purpose was for Lauren to gloat about winning a prize most people didn’t care about, and Lauren had gloated enough at home already. Mom had gloated as well, like Lauren were her daughter. Amy hated the whole frilly parade.

“I wouldn’t leave you alone, would I? If you want to go, I’ll be there,” Amy said.

Karma squealed, squashing Amy into an extremely tight hug. “Yay, you’re the best bestie _ever_. I love you.”

“Thanks. I love you, too, but I’m no robot, fake or not. Air, please?”

“Right.” Karma released Amy, who needed several seconds to recover.

“Have you been taking power-hug lessons from your mom?” Amy did not add that she wondered how Karma could stand such close contact while wearing a tank top made of a material that could not possibly breathe. Wasn’t she hot?

“I’m just happy you’ll go to homecoming with me. It’s a high school milestone.”

“Even at Hester with Lauren as our reigning monarch?”

“Maybe we can depose her. Like, a coup? We could be revolutionaries and make everyone love us.” Karma glowed with the high school version of revolutionary fervor. Why had she been glowing so much recently? It could be the sunlight. The past week or so _had_ been unusually sunny.

“Lauren would murder us.”

That gave Karma pause. “I don’t want to be a martyr yet. You have to be a little famous before you can be martyred and have it stick, and neither of us is there yet. And we’d need a better cause. What should I do? I’m too young to die while invisible.”

“You’ll think of something that doesn’t involve dying by evil stepsister.”

Amy was sure she would; Karma always came up with another plan, and Amy always followed her.

***

IV.

Even after her mom’s wedding, Amy couldn’t quite make peace with her new stepsister.

“If I see Lauren and my mom hugging one more time, I’m going to slash Mom’s tires.” Amy narrowed her eyes in the general direction of the sky, irritated at the sun and the unseasonably hot weather.

“Hugging is a serious offense.” Karma didn’t sound like she thought the hugging was serious at all.

“It’s _weird_.” Amy stomped the ground as she walked, which made her feel like a toddler. She stopped that but didn’t slow down her rant. “It’s a fucking conspiracy. Lauren wouldn’t hug anyone without an ulterior motive. Mom’s already married her dad, so it’s not like she can undo the marriage with niceness. She’s a socially regressive porcupine, so why would she hug anyone? And she’s been so mopey. I don’t trust her.”

“Didn’t her boyfriend dump her or something? Whatever, it doesn’t matter, okay? Let’s stop talking about your stepsister. I have a better idea.”

“Magically removing her from existence?” If Skwerkle could have eyes and ears everywhere, they had to have a magical people-remover hidden anyway somewhere. Amy wasn’t averse to stealing it.

“Reinventing ourselves. Everyone loves a good makeover, right?” Karma stopped walking, forcing Amy to skid to a stop so she didn’t bump into her.

“On television, maybe. Do you really think Hester High would go for that?”

“Not a regular boring makeover. A special one where we show off what unique individuals we are.”

“How would that work, exactly? Can you even think of a look that someone at our school hasn’t tried?”

“We can’t just pick a look that already exists. We have to take something old, twist it up, and give it _meaning_. Our school loves meaning. And secondhand clothes.” Karma said, gesturing to the store next to where they’d stopped. 

The place did, indeed, sell secondhand clothes; it was called Be Cute Again, making Amy think Karma didn’t actually need new clothes or a cute reboot. She looked cute enough as she was.

“You want to achieve popularity through fashion-based symbolism?”

“Won’t it be great? So, are you in?” 

“Yeah. More in than the latest fashion blog.” Amy knew next to nothing about fashion blogs and skipped those posts on the school’s tumblr.

Karma grabbed Amy by the hand and dragged her into the store, leaving her no time to breathe or protest. Once inside, Karma’s energy didn’t waver; without letting go of Amy’s hand, she grabbed a short red dress covered in several layers of fringe.

“Very 1920s, right? They were all liberated.”

“Until the stock market imploded.”

“I know, I know. But if I wear this, I can show that _I’m_ liberated. It was the first thing I saw in here. That has to mean something. I just need to make a look now. Let me try it on?” 

Not pausing for so much as a nanosecond, Karma dropped Amy’s hand and dashed into the fitting room. What her plan lacked in sense or logic, she made up for with sheer hyperactive energy. She was like a hummingbird who’d mistaken an energy drink for nectar.

“I’m looking,” Amy said, too quietly for Karma to hear.

It didn’t take Karma long to emerge, and she burst out of the closet – _fitting room_ – in a wild, bright red blur. Amy blinked, unsure if the world were spinning or if it were just her mind reacting to the overly bright lights in the store. Why was everything always so bright?

Karma spun, too, a whirlwind in a red flapper dress. She glowed yet again as she twirled, and when she finally spun to a stop, she didn’t pause for long. Karma shimmed, sending the fringe flying again.

“I’m fringe,” Karma said. “Well, the dress is full of fringe, and that’s close enough if it’s stylish symbolism, right? There’s layers of meaning, and Hester loves fringe, so they’ll love me.”

“I love you.”

Amy _meant_ it as a purely platonic exclamation. Only after she said it did she realize it was way more than that.

She was in love with Karma.

***

V.

“Would you ever date another girl?”

Amy realized non-sequiturs were not the best way to confess feelings and get Karma to like her back. She had tried to bring up the subject earlier, but words had deserted her at every previous attempt, like the spirit of romantic frustration itself had taken up residence in her throat. Non-sequiturs were an improvement, honestly.

“You mean like going to that meditation spa? Mom won’t shut up about taking me. She says it’d be good for bonding.” Karma rolled her eyes.

She didn’t sound at all impressed at the idea of going to a spa, but Amy couldn’t stop thinking that spas, even the kind Karma’s parents would enjoy, probably had hot tubs.

“Not that kind of date,” Amy said, biting into her gingerbread doughnut. It was better for her mind to focus on the new doughnut and coffee shop they were trying, Doughnut Go Anywhere Else, than to think of how many ways she could screw up this conversation. Feelings were volatile and explosive, and gingerbread donuts did not go well with explosions.

“Oh good, because there’s no way I want to drink rotten tea with my mom in a place where’s there’s no internet or shampoo. I tried that ‘not washing my hair’ thing. It didn’t work.”

“No internet or shampoo? Is that even allowed? And no spas, Karma. Really. I mean more like… not a spa.”

“Apparently, it’s really allowed. I don’t get the appeal. Is there any appeal?” Karma shook her head, making her – freshly-washed – hair reflect the light from their surroundings.

Getting distracted by Karma’s shiny hair was not an especially smart plan, but Amy couldn’t help it.

“So, do you mean stuff like making out so guys will notice you? Does that actually happen? I don’t think our school would be into that,” Karma said.

“You’re right; it really wouldn’t work around here. They’d think we were cave people.”

“Sexy cave people?”

“Yeah. Definitely. We’d be the _sexiest_ cave people. You know, if we were making out. In a hypothetical reality. Where that was a thing we did.”

“Making out for attention?”

“Just making out. For any reason. We’d be sexy no matter why we were kissing. Hypothetically.” Amy stuffed her face with more gingerbread doughnut to keep from saying anything else painful and ridiculous.

That poor gingerbread doughnut had to be the most awkwardly-eaten pastry in the history of the universe. When she finished the too-large chunk of doughnut, Amy tried to smile and act like a human who knew what words were.

Karma frowned, clearly not buying Amy’s attempt at a smile. “Is there a reason you were being so aggressive with that doughnut?” Her skepticism made her eyes greener, or maybe that was yet another piece of evidence Amy was losing her mind.

“Sexual repression?” Amy winced; she was _absolutely_ losing her mind.

“Got your eye on a cute boy?”

For a nanosecond, Amy wanted to say it was a cute boy. In the moody light of the donut shop, the male barista looked like a cute girl. Amy, however, was too awkward to lie about her crush.

“Not a boy. More, uh…”

“Ooh, a _man_?”

When this was over, Amy was going to knock her head against the table. Repeatedly. “Wrong, uh, side of the… rainbow,” she said.

“You’re into girls?”

All the air left the room. “A girl. I’m into a girl. One. I’m kind of in love with her.”

“Is this girl someone I know?” Karma spoke slowly, like she felt the tension in the air, too.

Amy had reached the end of her limited tact and social graces. “I’m in love with you.” Silence; she waited, her stomach twisting. “Fuck, just say something and put me out of my misery?”

“Give me a second, Amy. You kind of just blew my mind. I know what to do. Will you kiss me?”

Heart skipping a beat, Amy did what Karma asked. She leaned over the table and kissed her, not quite caring if she’d misheard or not. Amy wanted to believe a kiss was all she needed to convince Karma to like her back for real.

***

VI.

Amy thanked fate that her inelegant love confession at Doughnut Go Anywhere Else hadn’t caused the store, and her social life, to implode. The chances of implosion had been dangerously high, given that there was no guarantee Karma wouldn’t think she was clingy and weird.

Even Lauren had been less evil than expected, though it had helped that Amy and Karma had been caught by Amy’s mom before Lauren could blackmail them. Teenage hormones didn’t induce the most discreet behavior, nor did teenage feelings in general. That was part of why they were standing outside Amy’s house, holding hands.

“Your mom isn’t going to suggest a long list of boys you can make out with again, is she?”

“She said it would be ‘easier’ to date one, but I know Dustin Maltby has breath that smells like someone’s soul died in his mouth. How would that be easier?”

“You would tell me if I had dead soul breath, right?”

To answer that, Amy kissed Karma, lingering on her lips not _just_ for the purpose of making sure there wasn’t any dead soul smell.

“Your breath is fine,” Amy said when they finally pulled apart. Only then did she let go of Karma’s hand.

Karma giggled. “That’s one way to check, though I bet my parents have crystals that can scan for souls.”

“I still like the kiss test better.”

“Me too.”

“Should we go inside?” Amy wanted to to sit down. Or lie down.

“Yeah. These new wedges are surprisingly hard on my feet.”

They entered Amy’s house, which greeted them with strangely heavy quiet. Amy’s joke about dead souls seemed almost too relevant, until she discovered the strangeness came from Mom, who appeared out of nowhere.

“Mom, I thought you were a ghost.”

“Do I look that old to you, honey?”

“You look great,” Karma said before Amy could come up with anything else absurd to tell her mother.

“Thank you, Karma. Aren’t you the sweetest? Now, Amy, something came in the mail for you. It looks important.” She handed Amy a thick envelope where the address was written in oddly glimmery gold script.

Amy took the envelope, hoping it wasn’t poisoned. She could be a little paranoid sometimes, blaming the one party invite from a creepy boy Mom had tried to set her up with. At least they were beyond that now.

“See you later, Mom.” Amy didn’t want to open her mail in front of her mom, so she left for her room, Karma right beside her.

“So what’s in the envelope?” Karma kicked off her shoes and settled onto Amy’s bed.

Naturally, Amy joined her, though she still held the letter away from her body as if it could kill her. Now that she’d gotten a chance to look at it, she knew what it was. Amy didn’t answer Karma directly, instead opening up the enveloped with unsteady hands. The tear of the stiff paper echoed through the room, too loud for what it was.

Amy pulled out the letter, squinted at the print and willing it into readable words. It took forever, but she eventually made herself understand what the letter said: it offered her a summer job as an assistant to an indie documentary filmmaker. Her dad knew someone, and his offer of help had come through.

It was a miracle, or would have been, if it didn’t require her to leave Austin.

Silently, Amy held up the letter so Karma could read it.

“Indie filmmakers still exist?” Karma said.

Amy laughed, and she sounded hysterical. She wasn’t entirely sure what she wanted to do with her life anymore, but she knew she didn’t want to leave for the summer.

“They exist.” Amy let out another burst of hysterical laughter.

“Are you going to take the job?” Karma’s question wasn’t just about if Amy wanted the job or not. She obviously needed to know if Amy wanted _her_ more than the job offer.

“I’m not going to take it.” For all the confusion in her mind, Amy found those words easy to say, and she pulled Karma into a hug.

“Really?” Karma sounded so unsure.

“I’m not going anywhere.”


End file.
